ScreenScope

ABSTRACT

The ScreenScope is a computer screen magnifier for people who wear bifocals. The ScreenScope is a specially designed optical grade, acrylic lightweight panel that is placed over the computer screen to help accommodate people wearing bifocal glasses for reading fine print on the screen. 
     Since the invention of the printing press, people have been reading books with their eyes gazing downward at the printed page. And bifocal glasses were designed to accommodate this erognomic placement, the person holding the printed material and gazing downward in order to read print. 
     But times have recently changed. Suddenly most people today are reading from computer screens rather than from the pages of printed materials. 
     In the meantime, though, the bifocal glasses that people wear have not changed! Traditional bifocal glasses contain graduated lenses that serve two purposes: long distance viewing and a higher magnification area for reading fine print. The center portion of the bifocal lens of glasses is designed for the long-distance viewing, for such activities as driving, for example. When one drives a car, one&#39;s eyes gaze straight ahead or from side to side. And the lower portion of the lens of bifocals is designed for reading fine print, and people must gaze downward to access this lower portion of the lens to read. That&#39;s the way it&#39;s been done since Gutenberg first rolled out the printing press. 
     But when people read today, we most likely need to look straight ahead at the computer screen, not downward at the printed page. In the meantime, we are trying to read fine print with the lens magnification for long distance viewing. This arrangement results in an all-day-long annoyance of having to push one&#39;s glasses up in order to read through the lower part of the lens. Or worse, this situation results in a neckache, from constantly having to tilt one&#39;s headbackward to read from the screen from the bottom part of the lenses of the bifocals. Some people resort to switching between “readers” glasses for reading at the computer and using bifocals when away from the computer. More frustration, as one switches glasses back and forth during the course of the day! More glasses have been lost this way. 
     The ScreenScope acts as a type of telescope. The telescope means “far seeing” and consists of two types of lenses held at just the right distance to produce a surprising optical effect, that of acting as a magnifying glass for distance objects. The ScreenScope acts in the same way, combining the optical grade acrylic panel in use with the bifocal glasses to create that surprising optical effect, that of acting as a magnifying glass for reading at a distance from your computer screen while wearing your bifocals—without having to push your glasses up, without having to tilt your head back all day long, without having to constantly change your glasses throughout the day. So the ScreenScope is actually part of a telescope for your computer, the lens of one&#39;s glasses providing the other lens of the equation. 
     In appearance, the ScreenScope resembles the computer monitor panels currently used as privacy filters and anti-glare devices. So the ScreenScope is a portable device that could be fasted to the monitor from a plastic base, or even from such an attaching material similar to Velcro, or molded foam backed with adhesive, for example. 
     Ideally, the ScreenScope would be measured for the individual at the optometrist&#39;s office when the person&#39;s prescription for eyeglasses is calculated. But, the option exists wherein the person could choose and purchase a ScreenScope at store displays that are similar to ones today in which customers buy their own “readers” type of glasses. This display could consist of a replica of a computer screen print. The customer would stand about 14 to 20 inches away from the computer replica, wearing his or her bifocals, and try different magnification levels of The ScreenScope to find the one that combines with one&#39;s bifocals to gain optimum image quality for reading print from the computer screen while gazing comfortably straight ahead.

PRIOR STATE-OF-THE-ART INVENTIONS (“PRIOR ART”)

The ScreenScope is a computer monitor optical lens attachment for people who wear bifocals.

Magnifiers used as ergonomic accessories for the computer monitor screen for those who wear bifocals or otherwise have typically been beset by two problems:

1. They are offered with only one level of magnification, one-size-fits-all, usually increasing computer screen images and print by a single standard amount, ie, by 1.5 or 2 times.

2. The attempt to then adjust magnification for individual needs consists of a do-it-yourself, onerous process of the user's having to fumble with the magnifier sheet in order to position its placement distance from the computer monitor screen via a system of moveable hooks/clamps—with questionable results. The distance between the magnifier and the monitor screen is important because the image is affected by the distance of the magnifier from both the viewer and the screen.

These prior state-of-the-art inventions for adjustable lens/holders with glare screens/filters to use with computer monitors are shown from the 1980s to the present in a number of patents including the following: U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,928 in 1985, U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,870 in 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,870-A in 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 2,982,50 in 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,707 in 1990, U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,928 in 1991, up to the Kantek adjustable LCD monitor, U.S. Pat. No. 7,495,846 in 2009.

The ScreenScope offers an improvement of the “one-size-fits-all” and “do-it-yourself” problems of previous monitor magnifiers.

The ScreenScope solves the “one size fits all” problem because the screen magnifier sheet is manufactured to individual needs, using the individual person's trifocal prescription strength.

The ScreenScope solves the “do it yourself” problem because the magnifier's placement distance from the monitor screen is measured and calculated at the optometrist's office. In the same way that a person is fitted for eyeglasses, the measurement of the distance of the ScreenScope from the monitor screen is measured by a trained technician, ensuring professional results.

CLASSIFICATIONS

US—D14/449, D19/448, 359/742, 359/443, 359/738, 359/802, 248/466, 313/408

Cooperative—G02B7/006, G02B7/00

SUMMARY

The ScreenScope is an ergonomic computer screen magnifier with anti-reflective coatings for use as an attachment to the computer monitor for people who wear prescription bifocal glasses, whereby images are magnified and enhanced and glare is reduced.

The ScreenScope has at least one fresnel/polycarbonate lens positioned adjacent to the computer monitor screen for magnification, and also features a laminated filter/coating applied adjacent and parallel to the lens for reducing both external light as well as that reflected from within the computer monitor screen.

This device is made for people who wear bifocal glasses. Bifocal glasses include two prescriptions within one lens, a near-vision “window” ground into the lower center portion of an eyeglass lens for reading, leaving the rest of the lens for distance viewing. Trifocal glasses include a third prescription within the lens, located just above the near-vision window, which corrects for intermediate distances (arm's length) of from approximately 20 to 30 inches or so, which includes the distance for reading from a computer screen. The amount of the magnification of the ScreenScope is determined by the user's trifocal prescription.

The ScreenScope is made individually for each user, according to the person's prescription for tri-focal strength. So the manufacture of the ScreenScope would have in common some of the elements for making eyeglasses, including the following: The ScreenScope computer lens would start out as a plastic disc, composed of lightweight optical grade acrylic, polycarbonate construction, or other materials as appropriate and known, to provide optimum image quality, plus fresnel technology that would permit the large-size lens to be much thinner. A scanner would retrieve the prescription from a central computer, then program those measurements into the tray holding the disks. A mixture of metals would then be heated in order to make a metal holder for the lens on a machine for tooling. And then the tray of disks would then arrive to a computer controlled milling machine used to manufacture lenses, where the Rx is read and reshapes the plastic accordingly. The surface of the lens is polished, using abrasive paper under heated water. The metal attachment and protective film are removed. Then the Rx would be checked for accuracy, using a machine called a lensometer.

This Rx for the ScreenScope would equal the trifocal measurement, the intermediate measurement, if the user were wearing trifocal glasses. The intermediate additional lens in trifocal glasses is normally half the reading (“Add Power”) addition. So, for someone with a distance prescription of −4 diopters, for example, and a reading addition of +3, the reading portion would equal −1, and the intermediate segment would be −2 to −2.5 diopters. This last intermediate segment would be the Rx for the ScreenScope for the person in this example.

The magnification Rx for the ScreenScope would be the same as the intermediate segment of a trifocal prescription. This intermediate segment provides fifty percent of the added magnifying power of the reading or near segment.

Next the lenses would go through an multi-stage cleaning, then be coated with varnish, and heated until the varnish cures. Then the anti-reflective treatment would be added, adding chemicals (which could include celisium oxide, titanium oxide and zirconium oxide) heated using a high powered electron beam, transforming the powders from solid to gas and coating the lenses in the process. The light filter would have a first element to retard the light generated externally; a second element positioned parallel to and adjacent to vary color of the image projected from the screen; and the third element positioned parallel to and adjacent to the first and second elements to capture light from exiting the filter.

One of the last steps in making the ScreenScope would be to feed the lens through a laminator, sandwiching the screen between two sheets of transparent plastic, using heat and pressure to fuse the layers together. The laminated screen would then be fed into a hydraulic punching machine, which would cut the sheet into the size needed to fit the individual size of the computer screen, resulting in an optical surface of rectangular, square or other appropriate shape, cut to the appropriate size to fit the computer screen in use by the individual.

Another need of a computer screen magnifier is to provide an optical device that is easily mounted onto a standard computer monitor. The ScreenScope could be easily mounted onto a monitor by attachment directly to the screen by transparent adhesive tape or velcro, or by attaching the optical element to the screen via the static electricity created by the screen.

The space between the magnifier and the monitor can vary due to individual Rx, because the size and clarity of the image might be affected by the proximity of the magnifier to both the viewer and the screen. So if more distance is needed between the monitor and the ScreenScope, according to individual need, another option could be to fasten the magnifier to the monitor via molded foam strips that are coated with adhesive backing, made in the thickness required to achieve the proper distance between magnifier and computer screen. The size of the foam backing would be determined at the time the Rx is made for the ScreenScope in the optometrist's office.

The angle of the vertical adjustment for optimal viewing could be done by the user's manually adjusting the vertical angle of the monitor itself And the distance between the monitor and optical device to the user could also be adjusted manually by the user by simply pushing the monitor forward or backward.

DESCRIPTION

The ScreenScope works by fitting directly over the computer monitor screen, much like anti-glare filters and privacy filters.

When you read a book, your eyes gaze downward toward the printed page, and that's the way it's always been. Until now, because with the increased use of the computer, most people these days instead gaze straight ahead, not down, to do most of their reading from the computer screen.

The bifocal glasses that most people wear have served well the downward gaze to read the printed page for hundreds of years. Bifocal glasses include two prescriptions within one lens, a near-vision “window” ground into the lower center portion of an eyeglass lens for reading, leaving the rest of the lens for distance viewing, for seeing things that are five feet away or more. Trifocal prescription glasses include a third prescription within the lens, located just above the near-vision window, which corrects for intermediate distances (arm's length) of from approximately 20 to 30 inches or so, which includes the distance for reading from a computer screen.

Some people who wear glasses wear trifocals to work with the computer, then switch to bifocals for the rest of their activities. The ScreenScope offers the option of placing the trifocal prescription via the LCD fresnel technology lens screen to offer the same option as trifocals without having the switch glasses. 

1. The ScreenScope will prevent neck and back pain for people who are wearing bifocals and working from a computer screen all day. People who wear bifocals and who work at a computer have to tilt the head backward because the reading portion of the bifocal lens is located at the bottom of the lens. The bifocal-wearing person using the ScreenScope monitor magnifier user will no longer have to tilt his/her head back in order to read print from the computer screen because the Rx in the ScreenScope will equal said person's trifocal (intermediate distance of from 20-30 inches or so). The ScreenScope will help the person who wears bifocals to avoid changing glasses several times a day, from using trifocals for the computer, back to bifocals for other activities. This changing of glasses back and forth contributes to a lot of stress. The ScreenScope will help people to avoid the acceleration of the deterioration of their eyesight that many will experience because some people simply wear the non-prescription “readers” purchased in a drugstore, etc., for reading from the computer screen. The problem with wearing the “readers” all day long is that the same people keep the readers on all day for other activities in order to avoid changing glasses. Wearing the non-prescription readers all day instead of bifocals contributes to some 60 percent increase in the deterioration of one's eyesight over time. 